


The sound waves of promises

by Daughter_of_the_TARDIS



Series: The Space Wives Collection [14]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Post-Skyfall, Protective River Song, Sorry Not Sorry, Space Wives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:21:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22242520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daughter_of_the_TARDIS/pseuds/Daughter_of_the_TARDIS
Summary: "A very long time ago, the Doctor made a promise." River said.  Her voice was even and imploring, like she needed them to understand what she was saying.  "'Never cruel nor cowardly.' And she's tried her best to live up to that promise.  But a vow like that leaves you open to a lot of hurt."
Relationships: The Doctor/River Song, Thirteenth Doctor/River Song
Series: The Space Wives Collection [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2080728
Comments: 9
Kudos: 303





	The sound waves of promises

The TARDIS had a bus depot, several libraries, a karaoke bar, and a room dedicated entirely to bubble blowing. So it shouldn't have surprised them as much as it did that they had bedrooms on the TARDIS. It had shocked them at first, that first night aboard the Doctor's ship. She had flown them off of the planet Desolation, saying that the ship had bedrooms set up for them already. Sure enough, they had each had a room with their names painted on the doors, each one set up similar to their own rooms at home. It was nice - a little piece of familiarity in a whole new universe.

That had been months ago - maybe longer. Time was tricky when it wasn't linear. Now they knew the ship, at least we'll enough to find the kitchen in the mornings.

That was where they had gone after the Doctor ran away - first to Ryan's room to talk, and then to their own separate ones. But no matter what, they couldn't quite piece together what the Doctor had told them. It all fit together, but there were still too many gaps in the puzzle to finish the picture.

_Who are you, Doc? I mean, really._

_I was born on a planet called Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm a Time Lord. I can regenerate my body. I stole this TARDIS, and I ran away. I've been traveling ever since. The Master was one of my oldest friends… we went very different ways._

She had told them more about herself, yes - always little things that sounded too fantastic to be true. They remembered even more throughout the course of the night - that she had been a white-haired Scotsman, had been on an adventure with Agatha Christie, and used to know UNIT, whoever they were. Still, it was amazing what she didn't say even when explaining herself.

They didn't even know her name.

"We don't know anything about her." Graham pointed out, settling in the chair that they all pretended Ryan didn't keep especially for him. "That guy - the Master - he knows everything about the Doc, and he's insane. What if… what if she's like him?"

A defense of the Doctor rolled off of Yaz's tongue as easily as breathing. "Don't say that!" 

"It's true, though!" Graham argued - always the voice of reason even if it hurt him to say it. "She could be."

"We would know if she was." Ryan replied, although he sounded unsure. "Wouldn't we?"

Yaz shifted on the bed, playing with the blankets beneath her fingers. "Maybe she has a reason for not telling us things." She offered, sounding unsure but like she wanted to believe what she was saying. "Maybe she kept it a secret for a reason."

"I just wish she would tell us." Ryan admitted. "I don't like not knowin' - it doesn't feel right."

Outside the room, the Doctor heard everything - and felt a crushing despair. She just wanted to keep her new fam safe - safe from the demons of her past, the trouble that had caused her to lose so many friends.

So she snuck back to the console room, determined to get advice from the one person who had never let her down.

8888

Yaz didn't know when she had fallen asleep, but she did know that something was wrong when she woke up. The sound of heels making their way down the corridor had her sitting straight up in bed, her heart racing in her chest. The sound was distinctive - a sharp clicking sound that echoed throughout the ship and sent shivers down her spine. It wasn't Ryan or Graham - the steps were too quick for Graham, and unless Ryan wasn't telling her things he wasn't wearing heels. His dyspraxia was too bad for it. And it wasn't the Doctor - there would be a lot more tripping if it was. Eliminating those options left only one real possibility.

Someone had broken in.

She waited for the sound to fade away, and then slipped out of bed. Moving as stealthily as she could she made her way to the door, slipping out and around the corner to Graham's room. The door creaked open, confusing her - the TARDIS doors had never creaked before. So she opened it as slowly as possible, trying to avoid it creaking

"Graham!" Yaz hissed, creeping over to the bed. "Graham, wake up! I think someone's broken in to the TARDIS."

"What?" He asked, shifting in the bed. He wasn't near awake yet, but time was a luxury that they didn't have at the moment.

"Someone's broken into the TARDIS." She repeated, shaking him slightly in a hurry to get him to wake up. "We have to go find Ryan."

The idea of Ryan being in danger was enough for him to wake up so that he could get out of the bed. Somehow she managed to corral him out of bed - a near miracle given how much of a zombie Graham was before his first cuppa.

8888

Ryan's room wasn't where it had been the night before. It took them almost ten minutes to find it, three corridors over from where they had last seen it. But once they found it, Ryan was already opening the door.

"I think there's someone in the TARDIS." He said, and Yaz nodded.

"We need to find the Doctor." She said, feeling nervous. The Doctor had told them that no one could get into the TARDIS without her permission. And yet someone had.

"Which way?" Ryan asked, and they all paused, listening. Voices echoed through the corridors, winding around each other.

"It sounds like they're that way." Yaz guessed, but Graham shook his head.

He pointed down another corridor, already heading that way. "No, over here!"

8888

The voices twisted and turned, seeming to come from different corridors. One moment it would be getting louder, and the next it would be almost silent. It was almost like the ship was haunted - or maybe playing with them, Yaz wondered. The Doctor had said that the ship was alive. Maybe she was trying to keep them from finding the intruder before the Doctor dealt with them.

"Guys, I think I found them!" Ryan loudly whispered from further down the hall. He was standing outside of a door that didn't quite match the rest of the ones in the hallway - it was the same size and shape, but it was dark brown wood instead of steel and crystal, with a gold plaque on the door.

The others hurried down the corridor, moving as quietly as possible. They were about to break the door down and save their friend when Graham stopped them. "Hang on." He said quietly, an unidentifiable look crossing his face. "Listen."

The Doctor was crying.

"It's alright, my love, I'm here." Someone said, voice low enough that it was a struggle to make out the words. "What happened?"

"It's all gone, River." The Doctor said, her voice hollow. "Everythin'. I saved them all but now they're gone again an' it's all my fault."

"What?" The first voice asked, and the humans all froze. That was a new voice, one they hadn't heard before. It was a woman's voice, that much was obvious - deep and throaty in a soothing way. "What's gone - you're not making any sense, Doctor."

"Gallifrey's gone, Riv." The Doctor sounded broken, like they had never heard her before. It was unsettling.

"Oh sweetie…"

"It's all my fault." The Doctor said, her voice broken. Yaz had heard enough.

"Doctor? Is everythin' alright?" She asked, poking her head around the door. "We heard voices."

Two people looked up - the Doctor and a mysterious blonde woman. The stranger had a mess of blonde curls that the Doctor seemed to be trying to sink into, and a dressing gown which failed to hide her curves. The Doctor was curled into her side, The other woman quickly took control of the situation, trying to pull the attention away from the Doctor.

"Hello - you must be Yasmin Khan." She said, getting up from the bed and moving closer. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Who are you?" Yaz asked, taking a step back from the woman. Her eyes flickered over to the Doctor, but quickly turned back to the woman in front of her. As much as she wanted to help her friend, she didn't want to see her look that hurt.

"Why don't we go to the galley and put a kettle on?" The mystery woman suggested, already heading towards the door. "Doctor, come and meet us in a minute - I'm sure all three of your friends have questions." She said knowingly - although there was no way she should have known that Ryan and Graham were waiting outside the door.

8888

The trio followed the mystery woman through the ship's corridors, struggling to keep up with her. Despite their concerns, they still followed her - she had a presence that screamed 'listen to me, do what I say'. She walked through the halls with no issues, knowing exactly where she was going. The dressing gown that she wore was ratty and old, patched and faded and practically falling apart. But she clutched at it like a security blanket, and smiled when the TARDIS lights flickered at her. 

"Who are you?" Ryan asked - the first of them to say anything since they had left the Doctor.

"Professor River Song."

"How do you know the Doctor?" Graham asked, looking curious.

There was a moment where they thought that she might not answer, and then the woman smirked. "You could say… intimately." She purred, making Graham blush. The woman moved around the kitchen like it was her home, pulling everything she needed out with no problems. She started the kettle - an old fashioned one, nothing like the one that the Doctor used, boiling water in two seconds.

"Did you find the biscuits?" The Doctor asked, trudging into the kitchen. She moved to stand behind the other woman, wrapping her arms around her waist. She buried her head in the woman's side, still slightly emotional from her earlier breakdown.

"Not yet, sweetie." River said, moving away to pull down teacups.

"Okay, seriously though - who are you?" Yaz asked, getting frustrated. 

"You didn't tell them?" The Doctor asked, rolling her eyes when River grinned. There was a mischievous glint in her eyes that had Graham backing up on principle - every time he saw that look on their Timelord something always blew up.

"Nope." She said, pecking the Doctor on the top of her head. "I was waiting for you."

"Hang on, is that my dressing gown?" The Doctor asked, her cheeks coloring slightly. River just nodded, distracted by the empty packaging that she pulled out of a cupboard.

"Sweetie, you ate the last of the biscuits." River said, rolling her eyes fondly. "Again."

"Who are you?" Ryan asked, glaring at River. They were all growing impatient with the lack of information. The two women had a silent conversation, and then River nodded.

The Doctor turned back to her friends, a nervous smile on her face. "Fam, meet my wife."

8888

There was nothing like the quiet that happened when people were in shock. And River Song had been around enough people in various stages of shock to know exactly what it looked like.

"Doctor, why don't you go and get more biscuit while I try and explain things to your friends." River suggested, smiling when her wife nodded and disappeared back into the TARDIS.

"Right then." River said as soon as the Doctor was out of earshot. "We don't have much time."

"For what?" Yaz asked, suspicious. Something about this woman rubbed her the wrong way - maybe it was the way she moved, like a soldier. Or maybe it was the obvious closeness between her and the Doctor.

"For me to explain.". River said, then paused. "The Doctor needs to be the one looking out for you. It's part of who she is at this point - and breaking down to you about all of the bad things breaks the illusion. She's guarded because she doesn't want to relive the bad days." River explained, her voice soft and gentle - willing them to understand. "It's why she's always running from the past, running towards the future. And why when she gets hit with the past, it can be traumatic.". The humans were all watching her with varying degrees of understanding in their eyes. "So when she doesn't talk, it's not because she's trying to shut you out." The Doctor's wife explained, "it's because she's trying to protect you."

"But she shouldn't have to.". Ryan argued, and River nodded in agreement. 

"But she will anyway. It's what she does." She smiled sadly, eyes lost in a memory. "Hides the damage."

"Why?"

"A very long time ago, the Doctor made a promise." River said. Her voice was even and imploring, like she needed them to understand what she was saying. "'Never cruel nor cowardly.' And she's tried her best to live up to that promise. But a vow like that leaves you open to a lot of hurt."

That was the moment when the Doctor came back, holding a pack of custard creams in one hand. "I found them!" She cheered, ripping into the package - there was already one biscuit held between her teeth, and another three in her hand. Without a word, River reached over and plucked the package out of her hands, placing it on the opposite side of the table. The Doctor pouted for a second, then shrugged, settling in next to her wife. But the glint in her eyes said that she was already planning on how to steal them back.

"Right then, what's the plan for today?" The Doctor asked, looking excited. "Rafting on the Lost Moon of Poosh? Dinner at the Ritz? Tap lessons with Ginger Rogers!"

But her friends all shook their heads, exhaustion settling in. Now that all the dramatics were over, they realized that it was still the middle of the night.

"Not right now, Doc." Graham said, muffling a yawn. "Time to get back to bed, I think."

"You humans - wasting your entire lives asleep, you know." The Doctor said, but there was an obvious fondness in her words. "Alright then, off you go. Back to bed."

The last view of the married couple that they had was the pair of them, heads together and talking over something, a single cup of tea in between them.


End file.
